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Halloween with the New Addams Family
The All New Addams Family Halloween / Halloween with the Addams Family / The Original Addams Family
USA 1977
produced by David Levy, Charles W. Fries (executive) for Charles Fries Productions/NBC
directed by Dennis Steinmetz
starring John Astin, Ted Cassidy, Jackie Coogan, Carolyn Jones, Henry Darrow, Jane Rose, Elvia Allman, Vito Scotti, Parley Baer, Patrick Campbell, Dean Sothern, Felix Silla, Lisa Loring, Ken Weatherwax, Jennifer Surprenant, Ken Marquis, Terry Miller, David B. Johns, Clinton Beyerle, George Ranito Jordan, Suzanne Krarna
written by George Tibbles, based on characters created by Charles Addams, music by Vic Mizzy
TV-show The Addams Family, The Addams Family (classic series)
review by Mike Haberfelner
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It's Halloween, and that's pretty nerve-wrecking for Gomez Addams (John
Astin), as he won't be able to spend it with his family due to an
important lodge meeting, and what's even more troubling is that his
brother Pancho (Henry Darrow) has come by for the festivities, and he's
madly in love with Gomez's wife Morticia (Carolyn Jones), and just like
Gomez goes completely wild every time she talks French. Meanwhile, a gang
of crooks want to rob the Addams blind on Halloween and have already
installed cameras everywhere to spy them out, but when they send out their
man Mikey (Vito Scotti) to pinpoint the location of the Addams' safe and
he accidently runs into Uncle Fester's (Jackie Coogan) torture chamber and
lion's cage, he runs away screeming. So the rest of the gang, the bossman
(Parley Baer), his right-hand man disguised as Little Bo Peep (Patrick
Campbell) and their two strongmen (David B. Johns, Clinton Beyerle) decide
to crash the Addams Halloween party pretending to be of the Chicago line
of the family. They even bring a decoy Gomez (Dean Sothern) and Morticia
(Terry Miller) with them. In the meantime, Gomez has arrived home from
the lodge meeting early, driven by jealousy, and for that has been demoted
at the lodge, which makes him feel emasciated. But he still tries to play
good host, something not made any easier by the fact that the baddies
constantly try to tie him up or lock him in an iron maiden or the sort -
but escaping their captivity time and again is something Gomez thoroughly
enjoys, and he thinks the villains do that to lift his spirits. And while
fake Gomez and Morticia create confusion after confusion, Little Bo Peep
becomes Lurch's (Ted Cassidy) date for the night and the boss searches the
place - and is so freaked out by what he finds that he runs into the next
cop (George Ranito Jordan) and confesses everything. And ultimately, Gomez
wins back his self confidence and everything ends in the lighting of the
Halloween scarecrow ...
The "new" in the title of this TV special is
somewhat misleading, as with the exception of Marie Blake as Grandma
Addams (being replaced by Jane Rose) the whole cast of the original
TV series return in their original roles - even if there are
an additional Wednesday (Jennifer Surprenant) and Pugsley (Ken Marquis)
added to the mix as Lisa Loring and Ken Weatherwax were by then in their
late teens/early 20s. And in many ways, this feels just like the series of
old, actually several gags and storylines from back when seem to have been
rehashed in this one - and some of the gags still work, as do John Astin
and Carolyn Jones and the chemistry between them. But as a whole, this TV
special doesn't do good service to the memory of the series, as it's
over-long on one hand at almost 75 minutes, lacks a clear storyline, at
times feels over-populated, and the rather loveless addition of colour
does little for the aesthetics of the show. In all, while it's not a total
mess and sometimes genuinely funny, it's on the whole not worth your
while, as it doesn't hold up to the series as it was.
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